Democrats To Dominate State House Committees

As the Denver Post’sNic Garciareports, Republicans in the Colorado House of Representatives are set to be less influential than they have been in decades, with the 2019 lopsided Democratic majority resulting in big Democratic majorities on every House committee:

The consequences for Colorado conservatives following stinging losses in November are coming into sharper focus at the statehouse.

Democrats will have a three-vote majority on state House legislative committees, which vet, debate and amend potential bills before the full body deliberates them, leadership in the lower chamber announced Sunday.

The increase in power means Republicans and the right-leaning interest groups that rely on the GOP to advance their agendas will be at a significant disadvantage in January.

A three-vote majority on committees for Democrats effectively mutes House Republicans, but also gives House Democratic leadership a comfortable margin within their own caucus to ensure that one or two holdouts are not able to stall priority legislation on behalf of special interests. As Garcia reports, this is the largest majority that Democrats have enjoyed in the Colorado House since 1959–which we shouldn’t have to remind readers was a very different Democratic Party than today’s.

Blame for the heavy losses in the Colorado House primarily falls on Republican House Minority Leader Patrick Neville, although the caucus chose not to take their defeat out on him by ousting him from his leadership role. But that didn’t stop the last Republican to serve as Speaker of the Colorado House, Frank McNulty, from throwing some shade at “Boy” Neville:

Frank McNulty, who presided over the loss of the House in the last “blue wave” of 2012 after grandstanding against LGBT rights to scandalously end that year’s legislative session, would be the one to know about self-sabotage! Unless McNulty is willing to admit to his own prodigious errors, though, we can’t say he has much room to talk.

To the victor goes the spoils–and when you win this big, there are plenty of spoils to go around.

Hope they are smart about their policies. No picking fights with old & gas or bakers. Stick to doing things that matter like signing an agreement for those jumbo wildfire tankers. If the wildfires are getting bigger than so should our response. More funds for protecting watersheds and emergency evacuations. Go big blue!

What would you characterize as picking a fight with oil and gas? In your view does the state have any reasonable latitude to change how it or local government regulates either the drilling or operation of oil and gas wells that would not be fighting with the industry?

Unsurprisingly, I agree. I think O&G might call even local control picking a fight, though.

I think there might also be room for some additional fee for wells drilled/operating within a certain distance of wells for drinking or ag water to monitor water quality and provide a compensation fund for water wells ruined by gas or oil operations.